This surprisingly indirectly answered my question on why, if Hendrix is playing an E major/minor chord, the bass plays a B flat- because the altered scale flattens the fifth. Thanks 12tone!
E7 would be, as described, g minor 6 9- (a- instead of g#). Lots of points of harmonic origin respectively target. Nice. (not knowing Hendrix' music, shame on me). Thanks 12tone!! The distortion part was quite interesting (overtones, resulting combination-tones e.g.)!
Interestingly, a dominant chord with a flat 5th consists of two tritones -- the root to the flat 5th, and the major 3rd to the minor 7th -- which means an E7(b5) chord consists of the exact same notes as a Bb7(b5) chord, which is one of the easiest ways of understanding how to achieve a tritone substitution. In Western classical music theory, this is the effect achieved by a "French augmented sixth chord," which a jazz musician would simply write as a dominant flat 5 chord starting on on the bVI degree of the tonic key, meaning that it also contains the exact same notes as a dominant flat 5 chord starting on the II degree of the tonic key, or in other words, a secondary dominant of V. Another way of understanding this is that the altered scale is actually the 7th mode of the melodic minor scale (i.e. to play an E altered scale, play an F melodic minor scale starting from the E) whereas the 4th mode of the melodic minor scale (i.e. F melodic minor starting from the Bb, a tritone away from E) results in an otherwise standard dominant scale with a sharp 4th, also known as "Lydian dominant." From that perspective, an E Hendrix chord with a Bb in the bass could be understood as a Bb7 chord based on a Lydian dominant scale, omitting the 5th while adding a sharp 11th and a major 13th. There are even a few more ways to peel this onion, but I'll stop.
@@rd812 I would imagine it came more from the blues tradition of sometimes ending a song on that chord. Which itself is an extension of using b7th chords in a non-functional way
Hendrix didn't come from nowhere. Most of the elements that made up his sound and style came from various different places. His genius and talent was how he took all those separate elements and inspirations to create something that was cohesive, fluid, and completely unique at that time. Very few great creators create in a vacuum, as humans living in societies we naturally stand on the shoulders of those before us, trying to find new ways to build with the pieces presented to us.
CSelH Actually Hendrix did come from nowhere. The rock Gods sent him to educate humanity on the way of the guitar (they had to wait until we were ready tho)
CSelH that how most of the greats become legendary By incorporating so many styles and techniques and compiling them to create a style of their own. Example mic Jackson. Combine Robert Frost Fred Astaire James brown and Jackie Wilson. Genius’s
Here's how I see it : Hendrix takes a lot of insipiration from blues, and in blues, there's this ambiguity with the minor 3rd and the major 3rd. It's very vague which one is really important because the blue note seems as important as its common resolution, the major 3rd. I think this ambiguity cames from the I7 and IV7 chord : In C major, we have C E G Bb and F A C Eb, and these two chords feature the Eb and the E. We can also notice that the G chord (G B E F) features a B which can be considered a blue note (iirc). The Hendrix chord, however, is "having fun" with this ambiguity, with both the minor and the major 3rd, and makes it so we can hear what seems to me like a very important part of the blues sound in a concise chord. I think it's more or less the same idea as your second definition : the split chord. Or maybe he's just anticipating the next chord, because that Hendrix chord in Purple Haze goes to the A chord. I don't remember how they "resolve" in some of his other songs however, but that's an idea. Hopefuly I'm pretty sure Hendrix wasn't theorizing about this and just played this because it sounds great :D Great video anyway :D
In world 4-2 on original NES Super Mario Bros., the invisible coin blocks you have hit to reach the vine going to the warp zone to worlds 6, 7, and 8 are in the shape of the Hendrix chord.
Getting at the essence of what makes the blues sound bluesy - being in that limbo between happy major and sad minor, and never settling fully in either.
This is something I've noticed before but is put into very sharp focus here: PLEASE let the sounds you use to demonstrate ring a little longer :/ "Here's what the hendrix chord sounds like:" *muffled distortion for 0.1 milliseconds* I LOVE your videos, I watch and like every single one of them! But lots of times when you play a sound, I'm wishing it played at least a little bit longer.
I don’t think Hendricks is ‘borrowing’ from the Blues tradition - he is in the Blues tradition - he learned his technique in that tradition. Which is why, in the middle of the British Invasion, he had to go to England to get ‘discovered’; as a mass audience, they were more receptive to the blues, at the time. Mitch Mitchell, the drummer in the experience, took a big influence from Jazz too. That combination is, I think, a big reason they sounded like they did and why they were so influential.
@@dibblethwaite Yeah, it is definitely a #9, if we're using standardised Western theory. But since the microtonal 3rd doesn't fit into that type of theory, it's kind of accurate - or maybe it's better to say not totally incorrect - to call it a major and a minor 3rd. But I'd still write it as a 7#9, no doubt.
HENDRIX just had major attitude in his playing. His uniqueness comes from the way he plays. Sometimes he played clean and it still had major impact. Pretty rad 😎.
I totally see how theory is useful and has loads of applications in music, it's just that sometimes it's so complicated that I can't keep up. I'm really impressed by how deeply you were able to analyze this particular chord, because I probably couldn't have come up with that explanation
What a great, clear, "digestion-sized" explanation of this chord. I don't think most folks will start calling it a major-minor chord though. E7#9 makes too much sense for we folks playing it most often: guitar players who think Hendrix is basically the godhead. [Starting with an "inside" or 5th root dom 7th, like the shape of an open C7, you can move from the top voice of the root on the B string to form the b9, 9, and #9 chords, and they all have their places. So in that context 7#9 is a clear winner. There is a great Joe Pass video where he talks about chords and substitutions. He offers an interesting "back of a napkin" model when he says something like "there are basically 3 kinds of chords": major chords, minor chords, and tension chords." Then he takes a I-VI-II-V in C, starting with a Cmaj7. By the time he's done, the Cmaj7 has become an E7#9. Kind of blew my mind at the time. Opened my ears up. Cmaj 7-Am7-Dm7-G7 to E7#9-A13-D7#9-G13
There's also the fact that it approximates this curious just intonation chord: 1/1-5/4-7/4-7/3. It's one of those strange chords where there is at least one fairly complex interval (28/15 between the "third" and "sharp-nine") which is close enough to a significantly simpler ratio (15/8, the 5-limit just major seventh) to imply a tempering out of the comma between the two even if all of the intervals are left completely just-and, consequently, is unusually smooth after tempering as well. 1/1-16/13-3/2-7/4 is another odd one in this vein.
I've always analyzed this chord based off the upper structure; that "tritone then a perfect fourth" stack. It also comes up in the dominant 13 chord, where they're played as b7 below 3rd below 13th, which fits diatonically. This chord just does the same stack but with the 3rd below the 7th, so the resulting note is the #9 or m3 instead, so the shape keeps it familiar to anyone who has heard jazz or blues.
The Beatles used so many root 7th chords. I Saw Her Standing There, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Taxman (as mentioned) and She's A Woman just to name a few.
Nah. Chords like that excite me as bass player, so many note choices that fit and sound musical. Root notes are boring when that's all you play but a good bassist knows how to play outside of roots while still supporting the harmony and then the roots become very powerful when you go back to them.
@@0neirogenic no doubt. I just don't think the roots are boring. When you build and flourish and layer some harmonies then drop down on that fat root note it's so satisfying.
"kinda boring on its own" context matters. There really isn't much interesting about a root, unless you're looking at chord motion, and here that isn't the case.
Guitarist Ted Greene said there's 3 tonalities in western music, Major, Minor, and Bluetone (blues based harmony), this chord fits right in because of its particular chord family.
i love watching these videos because I only understand about half at most of what he explains. I follow enough to enjoy it, and I don't understand it enough to be humbled by it.
A mode of the melodic minor #5 scale. Lydian Dominant #2 being its fourth mode. It does not get a lot of use though. I doubt Jimi was thinking: ’Gonna jam withLydian Dom #w, now what chord could go with that? Oh man, this E7#9 sounds great with my scale.’ 🤪
The way I think about it is it’s a I7 chord like you would have in a blues and the G on top is the melody note taken from the blues scale. You would get the same or similar chord happening in blues all the time when the guitar is playing the basic I7 and the singer is singing the b3 from the blues scale on top, the difference being that Hendrix is playing both on the same instrument. The scale you would use to improvise over that chord in jazz would be the E blues scale, not the altered scale as that would sound weirdly dissonant.
Honestly, I spaced out a little bit while watching this video, so I don't know if you mentioned this, but I think one of the things about E7#9 is that it's just the blues. When I'm jamming with my friends over a 12-bar blues, we're all using the blues scale over all these dominant 7th chords. The minor third is in the blues scale. The major third is in the E7 chord. If one of us starts our solo on the minor third, we just created an E7#9 chord. I play piano and I recently picked up guitar, but whenever I'm playing with them, sometimes I just play a 7#9 chord while comping because it sounds cool, and I think that might be one of the main reasons Hendrix decided to use this chord a lot.
Absolutely fantastic video. Thank you so much for the succinct, easy-to-understand explanation and analysis of the the 7#9 chord and the altered-dominant scale. I'll think of this video every time I play "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)". Well done!
Actually in Hungarian jazz jargon we call this tonic function Hendrix chord E7 b10. Although it doesn't make sense it implies that both thirds are present in the chord. I specifically distinguish it from E7 #9 because for me it means that its an altered dominant subset.
its a beautiful chord. in hendrixs' use it served as a blues sound because it has minor and major 3rd so the micro tone inbetween is implied. its real importance is how it fits in more complex chord progressions. its no different from a 7 flat 9 in its function, nice as a good starter for further exploration if youre a music minded person
The altered chord is my favorite chord because there are so many ways to use it. Not only as a dominant chord but you can put a f altered chord after his tritones b9b5 and reslove it then also realy nice to a f#maj9.
Awesome video. As an addition to the explanation of why the G natural and G sharp can’t be directly next to each other (rather split by an octave), I would add that it is important in the Hendrix chord that the G natural be placed on top, instead of the G sharp. First of all, it creates the less harsh interval of a major seventh (or diminished octave, I guess) instead of a minor ninth (raised octave?) if the G sharp were on top. Second, I almost see the Hendrix chord as an accompaniment (E7) with the ‘melody’ note, the G natural, on top. The G natural serves as a ‘blue note’ here- the classic flatted 3rd, which is present along with the major third, in the major blues scale. I justify this by recognizing how it would be normal for, say, a blues/funk singer, to sing a melody which has a flat third over an E major/dominant blues chord progression, even with that direct dissonance between the G natural in the melody and the G sharp in the accompanying E7 chord… although it wouldn’t be normal to sing a G sharp over an E minor chord, because the dissonance would be made worse due to the illusion of the voice being “higher” than the accompaniment, regardless of octave. One last thing. In an E blues, just to maintain consistency in my comment and the video, it makes sense to use a G natural in the melody (and the Hendrix chord) partially because of where it is headed- usually an A7, which has a G natural in it. This helps maintain consistency in what scale a soloist or singer can use, not having to switch every measure between G sharp and G natural. This is why you’ll hear a sharp 5 (or flat 13) over a B chord in that same E blues- consistency with the G natural, and the same scale, over every chord. It’s genius!
Brian Setzer is famous for using an extension of this, his would be x-7-6-7-8-8, E G# D F## C (or B#), an E7 #9 b13 (or #5), clearly an altered chord, and I think he similarly used it a lot for the same reason Hendrix used his chord: it’s comfortable on the fretting hand. Setzer just took Hendrix’s and barred the high string with his pinky. It’s got a far more jazzy feel than Hendrix’s chord but so does all of Setzer’s playing.
Jimi Hendrix fans are boycotting Experience Hendrix LLC and Authentic Hendrix LLC trademarked products. EH&AH are suing the Hendrix Family and Tina Hendrix's (Jimi's niece) non profit, the Hendrix Music Academy, which provides free instruments and lessons to kids in Jimi's hometown. Drop the charges! Let's reclaim Jimi ☮ #SaveTheHendrixMusicAcademy
I'd almost argue that the real Hendrix chord, one he really used quite a lot and that really, really defined so, so much of his sound is the add9 voicing that he used... Kind of everywhere. It's most obvious in the intro to Castles Made of Sand, but it's super central to how he would embellish chords in general.
A great video, not necessarily for the information (though that was cool too), but the little jokes and comedic moments are so great. More than usual I feel
Is there anything, other than the distortion, that distinguishes the Jimi Hendrix chord from a standard #9 in jazz or blues, in your opinion? You brought up directionality and the tension between maj/min, but those are all also present in all other #9s, and we usually don't call those split chords. They're just bluesy, and they use both the natural 3 and the blue note.
I think Hendrix just used it as a major focal point of several of his most well-known songs (and is now a common rock guitar chord). It's not about who uses it, it's about who made it integral :)
Blues bends the minor 3rd to major 3rd, plays minor scales over major chords, and even plays notes halfway between the minor and major 3rd. I think the interplay of major and minor 3rds in blues bolsters your split chord argument quite a bit. The blues loves to make the 3rd ambiguous.
For me the chord is just the minor third over a dominant 7, at least it is the way that Hendrix used it. Take a listen to Hold It by Bill Doggett to hear it used in a similar way - it’s that minor/major blues sound wrapped up in a single chord. I find it a bit daft to call it the Hendrix chord as it wasn’t what “made” Hendrix, nor was he first to use it.
An alternative explanation is that it's a quartal chord: E Ab D G. The tonal analysis turns out the same, but it makes the chord appear more regular and provides better context to the half step rub. It's still a split chord, but this exact voicing gives a new way to think about it
GoldenPhoenix Quartal harmony is a well known conspiracy against rock by the jazzers. We don’t buy it, Sir. I mean, try quartal chord like E7sus (also very easy to finger) with distortion. Enough said.
@@PirahnaheadDetroit Most people say that he would've replaced Hendrix, but I say that honour would have to go to Stevie Ray Vaugn (The blues guitarist who managed to master Hendrix's style of guitar playing). Eddie Hazel is just mostly the black counterpart of David Gilmour.
@@thevfxmancolorizationvfxex4051 SRV wasn't as creative as Jimi. The closest guitarist to Jimi was Prince and he wasn't a full time guitarist if you want to be honest. SRV for the most part was in the blues realm of things.
BlackMusicGenre I can agree on Prince being a good guitarist, but even he isn't on the same level as Jimi. Nobody other than Hendrix can play guitar with their teeth or do all the cool tricks he did. Prince is original for his most part.
I think it's more from the diminished scale ( E F G G# Bb B C# D).... which is really related to the way older blues players soloed. I call this the ultimate blues scale.... E F# G G# A Bb B C# D....older blues and jazz guys would pull from those notes over a dominant chord. It includes the natural 9, the 13th , the 4th and the major and minor 3rds. Listen to BB King to hear that in action. Thinking from the altered scale gives you the wrong sound...it would have F and C...very un bluesy type sounds. Altered scales and chords want to lead somewhere, whereas the ultimate blues scale (that's what I'm calling it haha) can hang over a static dominant chord and not have to move. This is also how robben Ford and modern jazz/blues/fusion guys can slip into diminished material over a 1 chord to go to the 4 chord. Just a thought or 8
LaRue Nickelson Blues guirarists often switch between E major and minor pentatonic scales which cover all those notes except the blue note Bb (which you get by semi-bends from A. )
I've listened this song at least 5 times since Ginger died... aren't there crazy minor chords on we're going wrong also... I'm a drummer and I only know when the chords are minor because they sound haunting to me...
Alan Barnett Only tritone subs are not allowed in rock or pop. Career risk if you’re in a band. Jazz is all about tritone subs in every other bar if tou can sneak it in. The more the cooler. 🤓
For me the reason the altered scale doesn't sound locrian but darker is because Ab is oftenly used as a major third... But not necessarily, it depends on the harmony you are using... In that sense, if you use the Ab "properly", you do get that superlocrian sonority...
So I'm getting that it's a minor 3rd and a major 3rd separated by a tritone. That implies the existence of the "inverse Hendrix chord" which has the major third on top. Inverse Hendrix would contain both a major sixth and a minor second (aka minor 9th) - spicy! There could also be the "anti-Hendrix chord" consisting of two tritones separated by either a major 3rd (the "Dayman" variant) or a minor 3rd (the "Nightman" variant).
I love how this flies right in the face of an argument I've gotten a few times which states that you should not ever play jazz chords through distortion. I love doing it, and it's fun to know Hendrix did too. I have a song whose verse is this: E7(#9)-Am(add6)-E7(#9)-Am(add6)-Am7-A13-G(no 3rd)-G#(no 3rd)-A (no 3rd). I play that all through distortion & flange on the last time through, and it had just the effect I wanted. Production quality sucks and we didn't play to a click but.... th-cam.com/video/iMzrwgwQ9KA/w-d-xo.html
It should also be noted that--besides it sounds cool, because it obviously does--having the G# as the note closest to E and Fx the farthest-away note makes the chord wayyyyyy easier to play than vice-versa. (Not even sure if the other way is even humanly realistic lol.) Seriously, the shape of one's hand while playing the Hendrix chord is just so...comfortable. It feels as if the hand is supposed to conform that way. It just feels..."natural" (pun intended lol). Another prominent example of the Hendrix chord can be seen in Kansas' "Carry On, My Wayward Son," whereby the chord is used in the same exact voicing as in this here video during the "12/8" bars. Although there, I really don't have an explanation other than "it just sounds cool" because the second guitar plays an E power-chord right before then, and then a riff in the E pentatonic scale after the E7#9 chord is played...So I really don't think I'd be able to explain its usage here other than simply "it sounds cool," which is also probably what Jimmy would have said if he were asked why he played that chord so much. After all, music as most people feel it is a lot more about evoking feelings (including but not limited to emotional reactions) than about being a proverbial "math problem." Nice analysis, though! It definitely gave me a new scale to use over the chord, and I'm sure it did the same for a lot of other amateur musicians! Thanks, 12Tone!
Ozzy MGB E7b9 E G# D F is just as easy to play but sounds audience losing-awful with distortion. E9 in between is a gypsy Bm6 kind of sound also suffering from distortion. Go figure.
Sure. All that. Or this was just the sort of jump blues chord he was shown how to play when he was with Curtis Knight (or maybe from Little Richard's other guitar player) because the G note in E#7 can be held on to for the most minimal hand movement to an A7 shape (A,E,G,C#,G) and a B7 shape (B,D#, A, G) in a funk blues in E, with that high G acting as sort of drone or pivot through all three chords.
The 7th #9 chord is ubiquitous in music. Chicago, ( It better end Soon, ) Blood Sweat & Tears, ( Spinning Wheel. ) Earth Wind & Fire as well as jazz arrangements.
Altered chords are fun the semi sharp minor 3rd just feels so bluesy, in addition to, I wouldn't actually every play a major scale on one personally (unless it was leaning more jazz than blues) Buy you can run like a mixolydian with an added minor third and an aug 4 over 1 for a bar or so and it sounds good, but a little old timey if you play more than a bar or 2
Got stoned, picked up a guitar, made some sounds that felt like they matched the feeling he was trying to convey. This is fun to watch, but I worry that there are people watching this trying to consciously to understand a process that does not actually exist for the artist.
While the analysis may be deeper than the process that led to the music (I say that not really having studied Hendrix's musical background), part of picking up chops is learning chords and figuring out how they can be changed and used. Besides, studying things like this is just understanding why the finished result works more than saying anything about the process.
Think about this: power chords are cool bc, lacking a 3rd it gives harmonic ambiguity. Now if you smoke a lot of weed, it seems logical to experiment with achieving something similar by using BOTH 3rds. Which sounds like crap unless it started with a 7th chord. Then you have a very cool sound that gets even better with distortion.
OK but I kinda feel Jimi played it because it sounded cool and sat comfortably when reaching for extended voicings of one's basic E dominant 7th guitar chord.
Let's say a composer's works represent who they are inside. Did Hendrix gravitate to a "shell chord" that had a bottom note, a top note and mostly hollow inside and then filled that hollownes with fuzz/distortion. Is it possible that Hendrix felt hollow inside, like a shell, and needed something, some kind of fuzz or distortion to fill up the emptiness?
Great video, but I would like to add something that you might not have thought about. The main reason why there's no 5th in the chord, and why the major third and minor third is (almost) an octave apart is simply because that's how the guitar strings allow this chord to be voiced. And more to it, a Hendrix chord just feels great in your hand, it's a very comfortable chord to finger and feels powerfull to strike full force, very rock!
If play E7#9 with the fifth on guitar with notes G#,B,D,G on strings 4-1, with E bass, strangely enough it actually sounds less powerful than the plain E7#9. Usuallh inserting the fifht thickens the sound. Weird.
The chord didn't make Jimi Hendrix a legend. Jimi Hendrix made the chord a legend.
Facts
@@dwaynehall2497 the beatles used it on you cant do that this was the b side of cant buy me love
@@12presspart yeah but they didn’t made the chord famous
This surprisingly indirectly answered my question on why, if Hendrix is playing an E major/minor chord, the bass plays a B flat- because the altered scale flattens the fifth. Thanks 12tone!
E7 would be, as described, g minor 6 9- (a- instead of g#). Lots of points of harmonic origin respectively target. Nice.
(not knowing Hendrix' music, shame on me). Thanks 12tone!! The distortion part was quite interesting (overtones, resulting combination-tones e.g.)!
that or Noel Redding just forgot he was tuned down a half step
Interestingly, a dominant chord with a flat 5th consists of two tritones -- the root to the flat 5th, and the major 3rd to the minor 7th -- which means an E7(b5) chord consists of the exact same notes as a Bb7(b5) chord, which is one of the easiest ways of understanding how to achieve a tritone substitution. In Western classical music theory, this is the effect achieved by a "French augmented sixth chord," which a jazz musician would simply write as a dominant flat 5 chord starting on on the bVI degree of the tonic key, meaning that it also contains the exact same notes as a dominant flat 5 chord starting on the II degree of the tonic key, or in other words, a secondary dominant of V.
Another way of understanding this is that the altered scale is actually the 7th mode of the melodic minor scale (i.e. to play an E altered scale, play an F melodic minor scale starting from the E) whereas the 4th mode of the melodic minor scale (i.e. F melodic minor starting from the Bb, a tritone away from E) results in an otherwise standard dominant scale with a sharp 4th, also known as "Lydian dominant." From that perspective, an E Hendrix chord with a Bb in the bass could be understood as a Bb7 chord based on a Lydian dominant scale, omitting the 5th while adding a sharp 11th and a major 13th.
There are even a few more ways to peel this onion, but I'll stop.
It's also a pretty comfortable shape to hold on the guitar neck.
yep when i was 13 and learning to play hendrix that was most of its appeal, didn't really think about the tension haha
If you could ask Hendrix why he used it, I bet he'd say "It just sounded cool, man".
He probably just hit the chord wrong one day and liked how it sounded.
yeah, but music theory isn't about how they found it out, but rather why it works.
@@launder0 Yes...and no.
@@rd812 I would imagine it came more from the blues tradition of sometimes ending a song on that chord. Which itself is an extension of using b7th chords in a non-functional way
Aha, I could actually hear that in Jimi's voice. Man, what a legend he was.
Hendrix didn't come from nowhere. Most of the elements that made up his sound and style came from various different places. His genius and talent was how he took all those separate elements and inspirations to create something that was cohesive, fluid, and completely unique at that time. Very few great creators create in a vacuum, as humans living in societies we naturally stand on the shoulders of those before us, trying to find new ways to build with the pieces presented to us.
CSelH Actually Hendrix did come from nowhere. The rock Gods sent him to educate humanity on the way of the guitar (they had to wait until we were ready tho)
He should talk about Eddie Hazel next. An underappreciated guitar legend in his own right
He’s from Seattle.
CSelH that how most of the greats become legendary By incorporating so many styles and techniques and compiling them to create a style of their own. Example mic Jackson. Combine Robert Frost Fred Astaire James brown and Jackie Wilson. Genius’s
I'm trying to find the question where somebody asked you where Hendrix came from. But yeah, he came from nowhere.
Altered Tensions sounds like the name of a punk band
Yeah. Funny thing is, it IS an electronic musician instead.
@@JoergWessels Sounds like the name of an electronic artist who needs to start playing punk jazz.
@Mara Katz Alternative Tentacles is the Dead Kennedy's label, and for other punk bands too. I'm betting you know that :-)
@Mara Katz Alternative Tentacles is the Dead Kennedy's label, and for other punk bands too. I'm betting you know that :-)
@Mara Katz Alternative Tentacles is the Dead Kennedy's label, and for other punk bands too. I'm betting you know that :-)
They say that there's a secret chord that Jimi played and it pleased the Lord
Long live LC
But you dont really care for music do ya haha
@@paulfornal rest in peace
@@solberg7049 In our hearts he will live forever :)
@whiteaxxxe You mean: It goes like this, the root, the seventh, the minor third, the major third...
this chord sounds quite purple
Looks like your mind played you
GAH! I LOVE BEING PURPLE!
very hazey as well
Tastes like purple to ;P
scuse me while I kiss this guy!
To make things short - he uses an E7#9 - often used in jazz and blues
But without the 5th
with distortion, I guess
saganistic HA! Fair.
Thanks.
WITHOUT a dominant function, though.
Here's how I see it : Hendrix takes a lot of insipiration from blues, and in blues, there's this ambiguity with the minor 3rd and the major 3rd. It's very vague which one is really important because the blue note seems as important as its common resolution, the major 3rd. I think this ambiguity cames from the I7 and IV7 chord : In C major, we have C E G Bb and F A C Eb, and these two chords feature the Eb and the E. We can also notice that the G chord (G B E F) features a B which can be considered a blue note (iirc).
The Hendrix chord, however, is "having fun" with this ambiguity, with both the minor and the major 3rd, and makes it so we can hear what seems to me like a very important part of the blues sound in a concise chord. I think it's more or less the same idea as your second definition : the split chord.
Or maybe he's just anticipating the next chord, because that Hendrix chord in Purple Haze goes to the A chord. I don't remember how they "resolve" in some of his other songs however, but that's an idea. Hopefuly I'm pretty sure Hendrix wasn't theorizing about this and just played this because it sounds great :D
Great video anyway :D
Excellent! Like those guitar stabs a lot :)
Make more videos
In world 4-2 on original NES Super Mario Bros., the invisible coin blocks you have hit to reach the vine going to the warp zone to worlds 6, 7, and 8 are in the shape of the Hendrix chord.
Typical Anomaly coincidence? I think not
Getting at the essence of what makes the blues sound bluesy - being in that limbo between happy major and sad minor, and never settling fully in either.
This is something I've noticed before but is put into very sharp focus here: PLEASE let the sounds you use to demonstrate ring a little longer :/ "Here's what the hendrix chord sounds like:" *muffled distortion for 0.1 milliseconds*
I LOVE your videos, I watch and like every single one of them! But lots of times when you play a sound, I'm wishing it played at least a little bit longer.
I don’t think Hendricks is ‘borrowing’ from the Blues tradition - he is in the Blues tradition - he learned his technique in that tradition. Which is why, in the middle of the British Invasion, he had to go to England to get ‘discovered’; as a mass audience, they were more receptive to the blues, at the time.
Mitch Mitchell, the drummer in the experience, took a big influence from Jazz too.
That combination is, I think, a big reason they sounded like they did and why they were so influential.
I'd have just gone with it being a 7 chord with the minor 3rd to simulate the blues 3rd, which is somewhere between the major and minor 3rd.
That is way to simple, we must make it more complex!
Dead right mate in the Hendrix usage, but there are other ways of using that chord that can be interpreted as a #9.
@@dibblethwaite Yeah, it is definitely a #9, if we're using standardised Western theory. But since the microtonal 3rd doesn't fit into that type of theory, it's kind of accurate - or maybe it's better to say not totally incorrect - to call it a major and a minor 3rd. But I'd still write it as a 7#9, no doubt.
The guitar sound when you’re naming chord and note names makes me smile. Especially when you kept saying/playing “B”. Nice touch 👌🏻😄
4:09 "AKCHTUALLY"
4:10 "Oh."
HENDRIX just had major attitude in his playing. His uniqueness comes from the way he plays. Sometimes he played clean and it still had major impact. Pretty rad 😎.
I totally see how theory is useful and has loads of applications in music, it's just that sometimes it's so complicated that I can't keep up. I'm really impressed by how deeply you were able to analyze this particular chord, because I probably couldn't have come up with that explanation
What a great, clear, "digestion-sized" explanation of this chord. I don't think most folks will start calling it a major-minor chord though. E7#9 makes too much sense for we folks playing it most often: guitar players who think Hendrix is basically the godhead. [Starting with an "inside" or 5th root dom 7th, like the shape of an open C7, you can move from the top voice of the root on the B string to form the b9, 9, and #9 chords, and they all have their places. So in that context 7#9 is a clear winner.
There is a great Joe Pass video where he talks about chords and substitutions. He offers an interesting "back of a napkin" model when he says something like "there are basically 3 kinds of chords": major chords, minor chords, and tension chords."
Then he takes a I-VI-II-V in C, starting with a Cmaj7. By the time he's done, the Cmaj7 has become an E7#9. Kind of blew my mind at the time. Opened my ears up.
Cmaj 7-Am7-Dm7-G7 to E7#9-A13-D7#9-G13
Brian Keegan Would have been so cool to see Joe and Jimi jam together, damn!
Exceptionally educational video, full of harmonic insights for self-taught guitarists, such as myself. Thank you, that was spectacular!
There's also the fact that it approximates this curious just intonation chord: 1/1-5/4-7/4-7/3. It's one of those strange chords where there is at least one fairly complex interval (28/15 between the "third" and "sharp-nine") which is close enough to a significantly simpler ratio (15/8, the 5-limit just major seventh) to imply a tempering out of the comma between the two even if all of the intervals are left completely just-and, consequently, is unusually smooth after tempering as well. 1/1-16/13-3/2-7/4 is another odd one in this vein.
I've always analyzed this chord based off the upper structure; that "tritone then a perfect fourth" stack. It also comes up in the dominant 13 chord, where they're played as b7 below 3rd below 13th, which fits diatonically. This chord just does the same stack but with the 3rd below the 7th, so the resulting note is the #9 or m3 instead, so the shape keeps it familiar to anyone who has heard jazz or blues.
Or... in the key of C, Dm^add9/13 (played D F B E), or Fmaj7#11 (F A F B E). There are others, but they get kinda ridiculous...
Mickey Rube Guitar players think in term of finger shapes, stacks are for key dudes. 🤓
When you learn more music theory in one video than from 9 years of guitar lessons from 4 different teachers
Jesse Hughes if you learned more from this doodling douche than your guitar teachers must suck
I think your next video should be about the opening chord in 'Hard days's night' by The Beatles
Somebody give this guy a Doctorate.
Amazing video. I love all the speed doodling.
The Beatles used so many root 7th chords. I Saw Her Standing There, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Taxman (as mentioned) and She's A Woman just to name a few.
@Benjamin Sims Ringo
"...an E which is just the root of the chord...which is super important but also kind of boring..." And bass players are now shaking their head.
Nah. Chords like that excite me as bass player, so many note choices that fit and sound musical. Root notes are boring when that's all you play but a good bassist knows how to play outside of roots while still supporting the harmony and then the roots become very powerful when you go back to them.
@@0neirogenic no doubt. I just don't think the roots are boring. When you build and flourish and layer some harmonies then drop down on that fat root note it's so satisfying.
"kinda boring on its own" context matters. There really isn't much interesting about a root, unless you're looking at chord motion, and here that isn't the case.
Guitarist Ted Greene said there's 3 tonalities in western music, Major, Minor, and Bluetone (blues based harmony), this chord fits right in because of its particular chord family.
i love watching these videos because I only understand about half at most of what he explains. I follow enough to enjoy it, and I don't understand it enough to be humbled by it.
K F ::: Ha! Speed it up to 1.5... I’m still stuck on why he was writing everything backwards!
Try it w/ Hungarian Major 1 ♯2 3 ♯4 5 6 ♭7
Nice! I was actually trying to figure out what Lydian dominant #2 is a mode of whilst watching this video.
A mode of the melodic minor #5 scale. Lydian Dominant #2 being its fourth mode. It does not get a lot of use though. I doubt Jimi was thinking: ’Gonna jam withLydian Dom #w, now what chord could go with that? Oh man, this E7#9 sounds great with my scale.’ 🤪
wow, a whole video about my favourite chord! )
You're like the zero punctuation of music theory. Love it.
The way I think about it is it’s a I7 chord like you would have in a blues and the G on top is the melody note taken from the blues scale. You would get the same or similar chord happening in blues all the time when the guitar is playing the basic I7 and the singer is singing the b3 from the blues scale on top, the difference being that Hendrix is playing both on the same instrument. The scale you would use to improvise over that chord in jazz would be the E blues scale, not the altered scale as that would sound weirdly dissonant.
All this music theory stuff goes waaay over my head but I can’t stop watching😅
You're here for the doodles, aren't you?
Darm0k yea pretty much
2nd video of yours that’s shown up in my recommended videos, and super cool. Loving them
Heyyyyyyy! The Valdosta EP!
Blah Blah love it!!!
That disappointed elephant just looks so put out at 7:10. I wouldn't want to come home to find Disappointed Elephant staring me in the face.
Honestly, I spaced out a little bit while watching this video, so I don't know if you mentioned this, but I think one of the things about E7#9 is that it's just the blues. When I'm jamming with my friends over a 12-bar blues, we're all using the blues scale over all these dominant 7th chords. The minor third is in the blues scale. The major third is in the E7 chord. If one of us starts our solo on the minor third, we just created an E7#9 chord. I play piano and I recently picked up guitar, but whenever I'm playing with them, sometimes I just play a 7#9 chord while comping because it sounds cool, and I think that might be one of the main reasons Hendrix decided to use this chord a lot.
Absolutely fantastic video. Thank you so much for the succinct, easy-to-understand explanation and analysis of the the 7#9 chord and the altered-dominant scale. I'll think of this video every time I play "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)". Well done!
The way you did all that foreshadowing stuff with the drawings in the video. Man, that was great.
Actually in Hungarian jazz jargon we call this tonic function Hendrix chord E7 b10. Although it doesn't make sense it implies that both thirds are present in the chord. I specifically distinguish it from E7 #9 because for me it means that its an altered dominant subset.
its a beautiful chord. in hendrixs' use it served as a blues sound because it has minor and major 3rd so the micro tone inbetween is implied. its real importance is how it fits in more complex chord progressions. its no different from a 7 flat 9 in its function, nice as a good starter for further exploration if youre a music minded person
The altered chord is my favorite chord because there are so many ways to use it. Not only as a dominant chord but you can put a f altered chord after his tritones b9b5 and reslove it then also realy nice to a f#maj9.
Yeah, I saw the title and I immediately knew what chord it would be. Nice video, I love your stuff!
Awesome video. As an addition to the explanation of why the G natural and G sharp can’t be directly next to each other (rather split by an octave), I would add that it is important in the Hendrix chord that the G natural be placed on top, instead of the G sharp. First of all, it creates the less harsh interval of a major seventh (or diminished octave, I guess) instead of a minor ninth (raised octave?) if the G sharp were on top.
Second, I almost see the Hendrix chord as an accompaniment (E7) with the ‘melody’ note, the G natural, on top. The G natural serves as a ‘blue note’ here- the classic flatted 3rd, which is present along with the major third, in the major blues scale. I justify this by recognizing how it would be normal for, say, a blues/funk singer, to sing a melody which has a flat third over an E major/dominant blues chord progression, even with that direct dissonance between the G natural in the melody and the G sharp in the accompanying E7 chord… although it wouldn’t be normal to sing a G sharp over an E minor chord, because the dissonance would be made worse due to the illusion of the voice being “higher” than the accompaniment, regardless of octave.
One last thing. In an E blues, just to maintain consistency in my comment and the video, it makes sense to use a G natural in the melody (and the Hendrix chord) partially because of where it is headed- usually an A7, which has a G natural in it. This helps maintain consistency in what scale a soloist or singer can use, not having to switch every measure between G sharp and G natural. This is why you’ll hear a sharp 5 (or flat 13) over a B chord in that same E blues- consistency with the G natural, and the same scale, over every chord. It’s genius!
6:08 Mii theme. Just 2 chords,but mii theme chords
excuse me while I kiss the sky
'Scuse me while I kiss this guy.
@@SodomySnake Hey man if you're going to do that, there's a bathroom on the right.
Click bang! What a hang...
"Muddying the waters even further" I like what you did there.
was scrolling down the comments looking if someone pointed this out
Ashamed to admit some of the theory is beyond me but I love your videos!
Brian Setzer is famous for using an extension of this, his would be x-7-6-7-8-8, E G# D F## C (or B#), an E7 #9 b13 (or #5), clearly an altered chord, and I think he similarly used it a lot for the same reason Hendrix used his chord: it’s comfortable on the fretting hand. Setzer just took Hendrix’s and barred the high string with his pinky. It’s got a far more jazzy feel than Hendrix’s chord but so does all of Setzer’s playing.
Jimi Hendrix fans are boycotting Experience Hendrix LLC and Authentic Hendrix LLC trademarked products. EH&AH are suing the Hendrix Family and Tina Hendrix's (Jimi's niece) non profit, the Hendrix Music Academy, which provides free instruments and lessons to kids in Jimi's hometown. Drop the charges! Let's reclaim Jimi ☮ #SaveTheHendrixMusicAcademy
I'd almost argue that the real Hendrix chord, one he really used quite a lot and that really, really defined so, so much of his sound is the add9 voicing that he used... Kind of everywhere. It's most obvious in the intro to Castles Made of Sand, but it's super central to how he would embellish chords in general.
0:51 They used it (I think, although it may just sound similar) in the offbeats of the first 4 bars of each verse of "My Love Don't Give Me Presents."
A great video, not necessarily for the information (though that was cool too), but the little jokes and comedic moments are so great. More than usual I feel
E7#9(omit 5th)
Is there anything, other than the distortion, that distinguishes the Jimi Hendrix chord from a standard #9 in jazz or blues, in your opinion? You brought up directionality and the tension between maj/min, but those are all also present in all other #9s, and we usually don't call those split chords. They're just bluesy, and they use both the natural 3 and the blue note.
I think Hendrix just used it as a major focal point of several of his most well-known songs (and is now a common rock guitar chord). It's not about who uses it, it's about who made it integral :)
It's used in funk a lot too because funk guitarists really love Jimi Hendrix
Blues bends the minor 3rd to major 3rd, plays minor scales over major chords, and even plays notes halfway between the minor and major 3rd. I think the interplay of major and minor 3rds in blues bolsters your split chord argument quite a bit. The blues loves to make the 3rd ambiguous.
For me the chord is just the minor third over a dominant 7, at least it is the way that Hendrix used it. Take a listen to Hold It by Bill Doggett to hear it used in a similar way - it’s that minor/major blues sound wrapped up in a single chord. I find it a bit daft to call it the Hendrix chord as it wasn’t what “made” Hendrix, nor was he first to use it.
Watching these videos knowing nothing about music makes me question if I’ve actually ever heard a song
I'm pretty sure that the popularization of the chord comes from guitarists trying to emulate and work with horns in Chitlin circuit bands.
An alternative explanation is that it's a quartal chord: E Ab D G. The tonal analysis turns out the same, but it makes the chord appear more regular and provides better context to the half step rub. It's still a split chord, but this exact voicing gives a new way to think about it
I don't know if I agree with this way of thinking about it, but I like it as interpretation.
GoldenPhoenix Quartal harmony is a well known conspiracy against rock
by the jazzers. We don’t buy it, Sir. I mean, try quartal chord like E7sus (also very easy to finger) with distortion. Enough said.
You should talk about Eddie Hazel next. An underappreciated guitar legend in his own right
The Colorization Channel yes yes and more yes
@@PirahnaheadDetroit Most people say that he would've replaced Hendrix, but I say that honour would have to go to Stevie Ray Vaugn (The blues guitarist who managed to master Hendrix's style of guitar playing).
Eddie Hazel is just mostly the black counterpart of David Gilmour.
@@thevfxmancolorizationvfxex4051 SRV wasn't as creative as Jimi. The closest guitarist to Jimi was Prince and he wasn't a full time guitarist if you want to be honest. SRV for the most part was in the blues realm of things.
Eddie Hazel is very underrated .
BlackMusicGenre I can agree on Prince being a good guitarist, but even he isn't on the same level as Jimi. Nobody other than Hendrix can play guitar with their teeth or do all the cool tricks he did. Prince is original for his most part.
I think it's more from the diminished scale ( E F G G# Bb B C# D).... which is really related to the way older blues players soloed. I call this the ultimate blues scale.... E F# G G# A Bb B C# D....older blues and jazz guys would pull from those notes over a dominant chord. It includes the natural 9, the 13th , the 4th and the major and minor 3rds. Listen to BB King to hear that in action. Thinking from the altered scale gives you the wrong sound...it would have F and C...very un bluesy type sounds. Altered scales and chords want to lead somewhere, whereas the ultimate blues scale (that's what I'm calling it haha) can hang over a static dominant chord and not have to move. This is also how robben Ford and modern jazz/blues/fusion guys can slip into diminished material over a 1 chord to go to the 4 chord. Just a thought or 8
LaRue Nickelson Blues guirarists often switch between E major and minor pentatonic scales which cover all those notes except the blue note Bb (which you get by semi-bends from A. )
I love watching these with no clue what you’re talking about because I have no techno music knowledge:0
Cream's cover of Outside Woman Blues is built around this chord in the same year as Are You Experienced
I've listened this song at least 5 times since Ginger died... aren't there crazy minor chords on we're going wrong also... I'm a drummer and I only know when the chords are minor because they sound haunting to me...
7#9, people. It's a 7#9 chord. That's all it is. Don't overthink or over-analyze it.
Nobody:
Subtitles every time chords come in: “boom!”
I'm really digging the slowly increasing amount of snark in your videos. Much chortling was had.
Also; take the top 3 notes. Put a Bb under them. Voila! Bb7+6! (I think there are a few more, but I can't remember them just now.)
Alan Barnett Only tritone subs are not allowed in rock or pop. Career risk if you’re in a band. Jazz is all about tritone subs in every other bar if tou can sneak it in. The more the cooler. 🤓
If you do tritone subs in Dave Liebman’s band your toast too.
Steely Dan. Kid Charlemagne. 'Nuff said!
For me the reason the altered scale doesn't sound locrian but darker is because Ab is oftenly used as a major third... But not necessarily, it depends on the harmony you are using... In that sense, if you use the Ab "properly", you do get that superlocrian sonority...
So I'm getting that it's a minor 3rd and a major 3rd separated by a tritone. That implies the existence of the "inverse Hendrix chord" which has the major third on top. Inverse Hendrix would contain both a major sixth and a minor second (aka minor 9th) - spicy! There could also be the "anti-Hendrix chord" consisting of two tritones separated by either a major 3rd (the "Dayman" variant) or a minor 3rd (the "Nightman" variant).
I love how this flies right in the face of an argument I've gotten a few times which states that you should not ever play jazz chords through distortion.
I love doing it, and it's fun to know Hendrix did too.
I have a song whose verse is this: E7(#9)-Am(add6)-E7(#9)-Am(add6)-Am7-A13-G(no 3rd)-G#(no 3rd)-A (no 3rd). I play that all through distortion & flange on the last time through, and it had just the effect I wanted. Production quality sucks and we didn't play to a click but.... th-cam.com/video/iMzrwgwQ9KA/w-d-xo.html
It should also be noted that--besides it sounds cool, because it obviously does--having the G# as the note closest to E and Fx the farthest-away note makes the chord wayyyyyy easier to play than vice-versa. (Not even sure if the other way is even humanly realistic lol.) Seriously, the shape of one's hand while playing the Hendrix chord is just so...comfortable. It feels as if the hand is supposed to conform that way. It just feels..."natural" (pun intended lol).
Another prominent example of the Hendrix chord can be seen in Kansas' "Carry On, My Wayward Son," whereby the chord is used in the same exact voicing as in this here video during the "12/8" bars. Although there, I really don't have an explanation other than "it just sounds cool" because the second guitar plays an E power-chord right before then, and then a riff in the E pentatonic scale after the E7#9 chord is played...So I really don't think I'd be able to explain its usage here other than simply "it sounds cool," which is also probably what Jimmy would have said if he were asked why he played that chord so much.
After all, music as most people feel it is a lot more about evoking feelings (including but not limited to emotional reactions) than about being a proverbial "math problem." Nice analysis, though! It definitely gave me a new scale to use over the chord, and I'm sure it did the same for a lot of other amateur musicians! Thanks, 12Tone!
Ozzy MGB E7b9 E G# D F is just as easy to play but sounds audience losing-awful with distortion. E9 in between is a gypsy Bm6 kind of sound also suffering from distortion. Go figure.
rick beato must love your channel
Sure. All that. Or this was just the sort of jump blues chord he was shown how to play when he was with Curtis Knight (or maybe from Little Richard's other guitar player) because the G note in E#7 can be held on to for the most minimal hand movement to an A7 shape (A,E,G,C#,G) and a B7 shape (B,D#, A, G) in a funk blues in E, with that high G acting as sort of drone or pivot through all three chords.
I love how you are left handed, as was Jimi - but you draw Jimi elephant playing his guitar right handed.
That's sick
Congratulations on 300k Subscribers! (As i'm writing this TH-cam shows me exactly 300k Subs)
Just found your channel and subscribed! Good shit buddy
The 7th #9 chord is ubiquitous in music. Chicago, ( It better end Soon, ) Blood Sweat & Tears, ( Spinning Wheel. ) Earth Wind & Fire as well as jazz arrangements.
James Drynan Good picks. Spinning Wheel. Yeah!
Huh. Today I learned that Split Chords are a thing. Sounds like it'd be a fun thing to experiment with.
Jazz Guitar Scrapbook brought up split chords in some of his latest TH-cam clips. It is an interesting way of looking at a chord.
You mean slash chords, polychords or something else?.
Altered chords are fun the semi sharp minor 3rd just feels so bluesy, in addition to, I wouldn't actually every play a major scale on one personally (unless it was leaning more jazz than blues)
Buy you can run like a mixolydian with an added minor third and an aug 4 over 1 for a bar or so and it sounds good, but a little old timey if you play more than a bar or 2
the jackelope was my favourite part
12 tone rocks!
congrats on 300k subscribers
Got stoned, picked up a guitar, made some sounds that felt like they matched the feeling he was trying to convey. This is fun to watch, but I worry that there are people watching this trying to consciously to understand a process that does not actually exist for the artist.
While the analysis may be deeper than the process that led to the music (I say that not really having studied Hendrix's musical background), part of picking up chops is learning chords and figuring out how they can be changed and used. Besides, studying things like this is just understanding why the finished result works more than saying anything about the process.
And for all these years I thought it was just an E7#9 (or E7aug9).....amazing video...whew
Think about this: power chords are cool bc, lacking a 3rd it gives harmonic ambiguity. Now if you smoke a lot of weed, it seems logical to experiment with achieving something similar by using BOTH 3rds. Which sounds like crap unless it started with a 7th chord. Then you have a very cool sound that gets even better with distortion.
Muddying the waters...Thanks for another clarifying clip.
"Major Dyad" was my favorite early 90s sitcom starring Gerald McRaney
OK but I kinda feel Jimi played it because it sounded cool and sat comfortably when reaching for extended voicings of one's basic E dominant 7th guitar chord.
Jimi wrote an entire thesis on it before he decided to use this chord.
Let's say a composer's works represent who they are inside. Did Hendrix gravitate to a "shell chord" that had a bottom note, a top note and mostly hollow inside and then filled that hollownes with fuzz/distortion. Is it possible that Hendrix felt hollow inside, like a shell, and needed something, some kind of fuzz or distortion to fill up the emptiness?
8:05 I saw what you did there
Didn't get it
@@ribhuhooja3137 like in «Muddy Water» the bluesman which probably somehow influenced Hendrix
Great video!!!
Great video, but I would like to add something that you might not have thought about. The main reason why there's no 5th in the chord, and why the major third and minor third is (almost) an octave apart is simply because that's how the guitar strings allow this chord to be voiced. And more to it, a Hendrix chord just feels great in your hand, it's a very comfortable chord to finger and feels powerfull to strike full force, very rock!
You are absolutely correct... but music theorists never let 'reality' get in the way of a good lecture.
If play E7#9 with the fifth on guitar with notes G#,B,D,G on strings 4-1, with E bass, strangely enough it actually sounds less powerful than the plain E7#9. Usuallh inserting the fifht thickens the sound. Weird.
Thanks for once again stimulating my brain.